That was part of the problem. Having lost the home-court advantage in the first game of their series with the Orlando Magic, the Cavaliers have been playing catchup ever since.

Thursday night, they didn't catch all the way up, but they took a step in the right direction.

They avoided the humiliation of being a No. 1 seed that had a home-court advantage -- and then was eliminated on that very home court.

Just when it was looking bleak as bleak could be, the Cavs rallied late to beat the Magic, 112-102, thanks to another otherworldly performance by the incomparable LeBron James.

That earned the Cavs the right to go back to Disney World on Saturday and try one more time to win back the home court and force a Game 7.

Almost nobody comes back to win a seven-game series after being down, 3-1. Then again, almost nobody has LeBron James.

The Cavs do.

On Thursday night, James, who came into the game averaging all of the Cavs' points -- or so it seemed -- in this series, had a triple-double to lead his team back from the brink of elimination.

They are, of course, still on the brink of elimination. But they still have LeBron James.

That can count for a lot.

Like in the fourth quarter, when at one point James either scored or assisted on 32 consecutive Cavs' points.

He finished with 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists. Basically he had more of everything than everybody.

Through three quarters the Cavs trailed, 79-78. It was win the fourth quarter, or go golfing.

So for most of the fourth quarter, it was basically one-against-five, and nobody seemed to mind, with the exception of the five Magic, who were powerless to stop the world's greatest basketball player from single-handedly willing his team to victory.

As the fourth quarter unfolded, the Cavs removed all pretense of running an offense. The other four Cavs on the floor simply gave the ball to LeBron and went to their rooms.

"The game basically was all LeBron all the time," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.

LeBron started at the top of the key, and then just invented a way to either drive through the entire Magic team for a dunk or layup, drain a jumper or hit a cutting Cav for a layup.

It was an astounding display of "I'm better than you -- all five of you!"

Sensing, correctly, that his team was about to be eliminated on its home court, James simply took over the game. And he didn't give it back until the buzzer sounded and the Cavs had won.

"We gave him the ball and said, 'Get us some good looks, big fella,' " said Cavs coach Mike Brown. "That's what great players do. They put the team on their back."

So the Cavs have LeBron, but what they still don't have is a clue on how to consistently shut down Orlando's crazy-mad 3-point shooters, who for most of the series -- Thursday night an exception -- seemingly miss a shot about as often as Zydrunas Ilgauskas makes a dunk.

On Thursday night the Cavs, with desperation as their co-pilot, raced out to a 32-10 lead in the first quarter. The Magic then unleashed their 3-point shooters -- and over the remainder of the first half they outscored the Cavs, 45-24.

There have been times in this series when it's almost seemed like the Magic purposely fell behind just to see how fast they could make up the ground against the Cavs' befuddled defense.

The Cavs have blown leads of 16, 23 and 22 points in this series.

The 22-point blown lead came Thursday night. And after the Cavs blew it, they still had enough gas in their tank, and enough LeBron James on the floor, to regain the lead, and -- get this -- keep it.

Unfortunately for the Cavs, the only games they've won in this series have required a superhuman effort by the game's most superhuman player.

Fortunately for the Cavs, they just happen to have on their roster the game's most superhuman player.

He'll still be on their roster Saturday night in Orlando, when the Cavs will once again be playing for their playoff lives -- only this time on the road.

In a hostile arena. Against a team that has consistently confused and frustrated the Cavs both offensively and defensively.

It will be the biggest game of the Cavs' season. The game that determines whether their season continues.

They will need better performances from everyone individually, and, collectively, their best performance of the year to beat Orlando in Orlando and bring the series back to Cleveland for what would be an electrifying, potentially history-making Game 7.

The stage right now is at its biggest. The stakes couldn't be higher. The spotlight couldn't be brighter.

This is money time. Crunch time. All of that.

On Saturday night in Orlando, the Cavs will have desperation on their side.